Main brief finished

Main brief SMILE finished video

Mini brief finished video

Production schedule

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE Week 1: Narrative planning- creating brainstorm with initial ideas which were then converted into the main brief initial idea. Logo design - logo designed on paper at first and the converted into a real design using Adobe Photoshop CS6. Looked at after film logo designs to get ideas on good logos. Credits- Research into credits which sparked ideas of what our own credits could look like. Later on created using Adobe after effects. Storyboard and script writing- after creating the initial idea we created our script and character list which helped to make the creation of the storyboard easier. Week 2: Research into sound (other products and own)- Research into horror film sound and what created a good emotion in the film. Found warranty free sound websites to download sound for our own film once eventually filmed. Interview questions and interview for roles- created interview questions for the role of the news reporter reader in the film and carried out filmed interviews with two potential candidates. Recce pictures- took pictures of potential locations for filming and made a decision on where would be the best place to film based on what we could use in our narrative. Character analysis- Created the breakdown for the characters involved in our films and their specific personalities etc. Week 3: Film voice over of news report which will later on be added to the film to make the narrative appear as if it is a real life situation. Filmed a few takes in order to get the best quality possible.

Half –term Week 4: Make up and prop research- Research into iconography and make up in famous horror films. Make up research of clowns in order to get the best possible result and to make the clown as scary as possible. Filming- filming to take place in order to give us time for potential re-film and editing time. Filming to take place at 17:00 to make sure the lighting outside is not too dark, but just dark enough to create and eerie tone. Editing of film and gather feedback- Edit the film together with sound roughly in accordance to how we want it to look and gain feedback from target audience so that we can change the film based on how they want it to appear. Week 5: Re-filming: Re-filming to take place in order to make our film the best possible quality and to make sure it appeals to our target audience as much as possible. Week 6: Editing- Edit the second draft together with sound and gather more feedback in order to reassure ourselves that it is the best possible quality it can be and make sure it fits our target audiences expectations. Week 7: Evaluation question- Plan and create evaluation questions 1-3. Edit together/create what is needed in order to make it more appealing and look as creative as possible. Week 8: Evaluation question- Plan and create evaluation questions 4-7. Edit together/create what is needed in order to make it more appealing and look as creative as possible. Week 9: Blog clean up- make blog up to date and appear presentable.

Editing log

Log of when editing took place and whom by-
After re-film:
11/11/16.
Editing by Callum Ison.
Start 19:00
Finish 20:30
What took place?

The clips filmed on this day were added to Wevideo and merged together without sound. The clips were added together to gather a sense of continuity and establish what was happening in the film in a smooth way.
12/11/16
Editing by (main) Callum Ison, (Subs)Joe Deighton, Harriett Folan and Jade Moon
Start 14:25
Finish 15:20
What took place?
We edited the diegetic and non diegetic sound into the film in order the film more scary and also link the film to the horror genre further.
15/11/16

Editing by Group
Start 11:15
Finish 12:10
What took place?
Sound was re-edited in order to make the tension in the film build as the music begins quietly and gradually becomes louder. More news reporter voices added in order to make the action seem more frantic and make the audience begin to panic.

Updated narrative planning

The narrative plan has been updated in order to fit the new film.

Todorov's theory of equilibrium is use in our film as the film begins with a young woman making a cup of tea in the kitchen ready to sit down and watch some T.V. . As the girl is making the tea in the background of the shot you see a mysterious figure appear at the window in the door. As the girl walks to the living room ready to sit down the figure appears again but, the girl does not see him. The girl is sitting with her boyfriend in the living room of the house when a new report about killer clowns appears on the T.V. . They watch for a few seconds before switching the television off and going to bed however, the couple forget to lock the door behind them and the door is slightly open. As the couple walk upstairs the figure at the door and opens it. The figure is revealed to be a clown and the clown walks up the stairs following the couple who had went before him.

Target audience feedback video on 'Smile' rough cut.

In order to adapt our film to make it appear as an opening rather than a trailer, we conducted an interview with out target audience to find out what they like and what they would change. We gathered two 17 year old boys so that the 15-18 age bracket target audience could review the film and help us to adapt. From this video the group decided that we need more build up in our film but, we could still use the same sound as they said that this worked well and reminded them of the very famous horror film 'Psycho'

First draft of ''Smile' re-filmed

Weather of day of refilm

Sunrise: 7:11 AM

Sunset: 4:17 PM
Due to us knowing that on the 10th November 2016 the sun would set a 4:17 PM we decided that the best time to film would be after this as then the lighting would be beginning to get dark, however it wouldn't be too dark and affect the visibility of the characters outside..

Sun and some clouds with a shower in the area. 7°

Precipitation 41%
As we knew that the weathers temperature would not be particularly warm and the precipitation level being quite high we knew that this would be a good day to film due to the cold sense the film would get and the dim lighting due to the clouds would create a more mysterious and spooky undertone to the film.

Rough cut of 'Smile'

Some aspects of the film will need to be changed in order to make the film look more like an opening rather than a trailer. In order to do this we will need to cut down on the amount we reveal in our stories and reveal more about the characters in the film. Also, we need to add more suspense and therefore as a group we have decided to make the clown circle the house and pop up at different windows in order to scare the viewer and leave them apprehensive that the protagonists have not spotted the antagonist.

Audience feedback 2

We will use this audience feedback in order to progress our film to a higher level by taking into account what we have been told. For example the key theme highlighted throughout most of the feedback is about the sound and therefore we will use this to change the sound in our film in order to make it better. As we would like to make our film a level 4 piece we will spend more time researching the sound which we want to use in our film in order to build suspense. This means that we will be looking for a soundtrack that builds slowly and would work well in building up the sound and making it louder as the film progresses.

Plan of re-filming

Once we had decided to re film our media AS coursework we made a list of what would need to be done. We decided that by removing some of the extras we would be able to create more suspense as the audience would be able to build a better relationship with the characters on screen. We also decided that instead of showing the news video on the actual screen we would use a shot of the news report on T.V. in order to make it seem more realistic. We also took inspiration from the film 'Hush' in making the clown stalk the house as when we watched this film we found that the stalking of the house worked and made the audience apprehensive as they wasn't sure when the antagonist would break in. We also took inspiration from the film 'Scream' as the use of popcorn as symbolism for the building tension worked well and therefore we decided to incorporate a whistling kettle in our film to mirror this. Finally, we decided instead of actually killing off the main protagonists we would leave the opening scene on a cliff hanger with the clown walking up the stairs. This was due to us realising by doing this we wouldn't know if the clown was going to kill the protagonists or torture them etc. 

Interview for news reporter role.

We selected candidate one for the role (Joe Deighton)